


Dancing With Your Ghost

by BowAndDagger



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But he still becomes a Visored, Gen, Ichigo and Rukia kick ass together, Ichigo dies before meeting Rukia, Major Character Death (not really), Non-native writing in English, Not Beta Read, Rukia doesn't give him her powers, he's a ghost and no one can see him, until he's not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 13:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BowAndDagger/pseuds/BowAndDagger
Summary: Kurosaki Ichigo dies when he’s fifteen.He's a ghost and yet no one, not even Karin or that weird Hat-and-clogs guy, can see him.Things change but a lot stays the same.





	Dancing With Your Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song 'Dancing with Your Ghost' by No Resolve

Kurosaki Ichigo dies when he’s fifteen.

 

In one world, Ichigo would have been at school for cleaning duties and wouldn’t have been in the street when that car came hurtling down the road. But the little girl would have been here, would have died and would have met Ichigo as a ghost.

In this world, one of his classmates fell ill one week and Ichigo replaced him for cleaning duties. Said classmate then repaid him by taking over the chores this particular day and the teen sets off for home much sooner.

When the car came speeding past him, Ichigo saw the catastrophe before it happened, saw the broken body of a little girl around the same age as his beloved sisters. And if Ichigo is anything, it’s a protector. He didn’t even think. He let go of his schoolbag and threw the girl away from the road. He barely felt the impact before darkness overwhelmed him.

 

 

When he wakes up, it’s to a broken chain dangling from his chest, his body being loaded into an ambulance and an official-looking guy going through his wallet, presumably to find his identity and contact his family.

Being a ghost after years of seeing, and interacting, with spirits is unsettling. So Ichigo doesn’t stay; he goes straight to his home.

 

 

The biggest (heart-breaking) surprise – if that word wan be used in this context – is that Karin, for all her abilities to see spirits, is unable to see or hear him.

 

(The ghost he met on the way to his house weren’t able to see him either. Weird, considering he knows for a fact that ghosts can see each other.)

 

Ichigo can only watch, powerless to do anything, as his family learn of his passing. He wants to comfort them, but he can’t. So he watches, hoping that, at least on a subconscious level, his family can sense his presence.

 

(In a part of his mind he doesn’t pay much attention at the moment, he notes the worried expression of his father’s face. The man seems sad, as heart-broken as Ichigo’s sisters are, but there is more worry in his eyes then sadness.)

 

 

Ichigo stays near Yuzu and Karin the next day, and the days after that. Never far from them and always talking to them; even if they can’t hear him.

When his funeral ceremony comes, Ichigo can barely stands being in the same room as his corpse and family. But he stays, a silent support to them.

 

The little girl he saved is there as well, crying. Her parents have a death-grip on her at all time. And Ichigo is glad. He’ll never forgive himself for hurting his family but… But he would have never forgiven himself if had let that little girl die.

 

Tatsuki and Chad are here as well. Ichigo can barely looks at them. But he really wants for Chad to be able to hear him. Because the teen can see the downturned slope of his tall friend’s shoulders, can see that Chad is blaming himself for not being with Ichigo that day. He, with his big stature, would have survived being hit by that car. It’s not his fault, it never was, but Chad can’t hear ghosts and so he continues to blame himself.

 

There’s a weird guy wearing a stripped bucket hat, a pair of clogs and holding a cane at the far back of the room. Ichigo pays attention to him because the man’s expression is exactly the same as his father’s: a mix of sadness and worry. What’s more, the teen is pretty sure Hat-and-clogs can see ghosts if the way he’s covertly watching the spirits presents on the Temple grounds is any indication. But, again, he can’t see Ichigo.

Weird.

Ichigo resolves to keep an eye on him.

 

 

Karakura Town is a Hellmouth. There is no other explication to the incongruous concentration of spirits, people who can see said spirits, those weird monsters with bone-mask and honest-to-God _Shinigami_ that populates the town.

Ichigo has no idea how the hell he never saw all that activity. How the only things supernatural he ever interacted with are the ghosts. Because there’s a lot of come-and-go from the Shinigami and the monsters ( _Hollows_ , he hears one of the Shinigami swears).

Weirdest of all, none of them can see him. And Ichigo has no idea _why_.

 

(The chain dangling from his chest is getting shorter. He has an ominous feeling about it.)

 

 

Kurosaki Ichigo, fifteen years old teen, gets kidnapped three months, two weeks and four days after his death (yes, he’s counting).

And there must be something weird about him because the Shinigami who caught him can’t see him. Their eyes pass over him without seeing him, they’re not holding any kind of device that could potentially detect him, and yet they caught him in some sort of invisible barrier.

They don’t talk either and even while panicking, Ichigo can see that they move strangely, almost robotically, like they not conscious of moving. Again, weird but that seems to be the norm for him since his birth…

Then, his abductors proceeds to blow the ground beneath his feet and the teen ends up dazed at the bottom of a very deep pit.

He has a very bad feeling.

 

 

His chain gets shorter, again. Slowly at first and suddenly the links of the chain becomes alive like some kind of ugly worms and start eating themselves. Ichigo is not afraid to admit he shrieked, loudly. And panicked.

And it _hurts._ He doesn’t fully remember being hit by the car that killed him, but he’s pretty sure it wasn’t as painful as _this_.

That’s when he starts hearing a voice. No, scratch that, that’s when he starts hearing _two_ voices.

 

 

Ichigo escapes with no idea of how much time he spent in that pit, with the blood of his captors on his hands, a sword strapped to his back and the memory of the sensation of a mask on his face.

The two voices in his head don’t leave him, they remain at the back of his mind and he’s really thankful for their presence and support.

 

(He has two names on the tip of his tongue but Ichigo dares not utter them. Not yet. But soon.)

 

 

The same night he escapes, Ichigo runs into a black-haired Shinigami.

In one world, Ichigo would have met Kuchiki Rukia as a Human and she would have given him her powers.

In this world, Ichigo doesn’t need a power boost, just some explanation on what’s going on.

They get rid of a huge Hollow together.

They start discussing the weirdness that is Ichigo’s life after the battle. The teen shouldn’t be surprised when they become more or less instant friends – even if her drawings are horrible.

 

(Unsurprisingly, she punches him when he says that.)

 

 

Karin can see him, now.

So does Hat-and-clogs.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading!  
> I’m not sure I’ll ever continue writing in that universe but the idea had been in my head for a several days now, and it needed out.  
> I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
